Santander ignoring me

[pooky2483]

Re: Santander ignoring me

Nah, it didn’t work, he didn’t put any more £ in the account.
I also have an update re FOS.

Thank you for your recent letter to this service regarding your complaint.
Your complaint was closed on 27 September 2012 after no response was received from you within the deadline set in my letter dated 13 September 2012.
As it has been over two months since the complaint was closed, your complaint file has been archived at our depot. In order to be fair to both parties to the complaint, I must assess whether it is in the best interest to reopen the complaint. In doing this, I must review the recent information you have provided along with the information already on file and decide whether further investigation is needed. I must say, however, that it is not common for this Service to reopen complaints after an adjudication has been provided for it and the complaint has been closed.
I will request the case file back from our depot to review it in line with the information you have recently provided. Please bear in mind that it can take upto two weeks for me to receive a case file requested from our depot. Once I have received the case file, I will contact you again to let you know whether I have decided to reopen the complaint or not.
If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

I complained and sent in further proof that I DID have a B&B account and got this reply.

Many thanks for your previous letter sent in response to my view of your complaint which was issued on 13 September 2012. Please accept my apologies for the delay in getting back to you.
As you are aware, I provided you with a copy of my view for your complaint on 13 September 2012. The deadline for providing a response to this view was 27 September 2012. You did not get back in touch with this Service until 26 November 2012.
You have asked for the complaint to be reopened, as you disagree with the view issued for it. Normally, we would expect any response to a view for a complaint which a consumer did not agree with to be provided within the deadline specified on the view letter. As we did not receive a response from you within the deadline set, the complaint was closed a short time after the deadline passed. This is in keeping with our Service procedures for resolving complaints.
However, in certain circumstances we are able to consider additional information provided after deadlines set for a response. When deciding to reopen a complaint, we must consider whether it is fair to both parties to do so, and whether any material and substantially new information has been provided which would likely alter the outcome of the complaint.
With this in mind, I have reviewed the further information which you have provided to this Service along with the information already on file for your complaint. As the majority of the further information you provided is the same as the information already on file, I do not think that it is likely that my view of your complaint would change if I was to reopen it. Therefore, I do not think it would be fair to all parties concerned for the complaint to be reopened. However, this does not preclude you from pursuing your complaint through other means (e.g. Citizens Advice Bureau or independent legal advice).
Consequently, your complaint file will remain closed. I understand that this is not the outcome you were hoping for. However, I hope I have been clear in setting out why we cannot reopen your complaint.

What am utter waste of time the FOS are. I appealed the first decision and THE SAME GUY reviewed it... WTF. I though if I appealed it gets passed FURTHER UP and NOT reviewed by the same person.

[pooky2483]

Re: Santander ignoring me

As you regular readers will know, we have been having issues with joint accounts and the lack of items, well we have Just had a phone call from Mr Webb this morning asking me when it would be convenient for me to go into my nearest branch to get a Debit Card sorted for Mrs Pooky.

He has said for me to e-mail him when I would be able to call into the branch and he will inform them that I will be turning up and to not have me go away empty handed.

All this is because of an e-mail I sent him last week;

Mr Webb

My wife does NOT require a CREDIT CARD, just a DEBIT CARD as she has not got one for the remaining JOINT ACCOUNT.

You say you have REMOVED a 'no mail indicator' from my records, what exactly do you mean? As I read it, we will get mail for products from you to our joint account. We do NOT want any. What we require you to do is check that the SOLE account in my wife's name, Mrs Pooky IS CLOSED and that there is NO mail from THAT account as it is there that the mail is coming from.

Regarding the mail to Mr Unknown, I have already sent you a copy of the mail, if you could check the e-mail I sent you on 23/11/2012, I have sent attachments of BOTH letters sent to our address.

We are also getting to the point where we will be CLOSING ALL accounts and opening up other accounts elsewhere as we feel we are banging our heads against a brick wall as when we ask for things to be done, they are not done correctly or even at all and issues miss-read.

Mr & Mrs Pooky

He has offerer £100 in way of an apology, I have sent him an email back;

Mr Webb
Further to our conversation earlier this morning, as this matter has been dragging on for nearly a year now and has impacted on my wife’s independence, she has had agoraphobia for over 25 years and is only just feeling some independence and the lack of the card has slightly knocked it back. We feel that it would be a greater apology if the compensation would be of £100 each if that was not to be putting your nose out of joint in the way as you have offered compensation in the first place.

I have checked our account and he had put £100 in already, I am hoping he replies positively to my email and deposits another £100 and does not remove the first £100. If he does do that then we WILL close accounts and move banks.

So that looks like a result, so much for the FOS sorting this complaint out, they basically backed what the bank did.

[pooky2483]

Re: Santander ignoring me

Hi Pooky,
Just had a proper read through the letter. So pro bank it's unbelievable! Do you have docs to confirm you had the B&B account?

Elsa x

I'm currently looking for it now, I had loads of personal stuff on a 500Gb and it went up the spout and Niddy recommended Mauijim.
I sent it to him to see what he could recover, he got quite a lot off but I'm not sure if I saw the relevant PDF for B&B so I don't know if I still have it. I do remember <ages ago> saving some stuff to DVD but cant find them.
It does mention in the SAR that they used the account -which used to be the B&B account-

[Undercover Elsa]

Re: Santander ignoring me

Hi Pooky,
Just had a proper read through the letter. So pro bank it's unbelievable! Do you have docs to confirm you had the B&B account?

Elsa x

[Undercover Elsa]

Re: Santander ignoring me

Hi Pookie,
I've edited personal details from your pdf file and re-uploaded them

kind regards,

Elsa x

[pooky2483]

Re: Santander ignoring me

Just a short update, I got a letter back from the OFT back in Sept but lost it and only just found it tonight.
I cant believe the shit in there.
I HAVE had a Bradford & Bingley Account. Since 1995 in fact and it was called a TIMESAVER ACCOUNT. NOT as quoted in the letter, a CURRENT ACCOUNT.
They should know that as it is actually in the SAR paperwork I requested earlier and sent the FOS a copy.

There are other points but I will go over them shortly.

[pooky2483]

Re: Santander ignoring me

I dont understand that statement..

The purpose of the Social Security Administration Act, 1992. Section 187 is to prevent people's benefit money being at risk by it being assigned over to a third party in settlement of a debt. It is not intended to prohibit the applicatoin of bank charges.

Bank charges when applied for going overdrawn ARE a debt and the bank is the third party.. surely !!

Bank charges are in the nature of an expense and are incurred by the holder of the Account.

Crap - Bank charges are a penalty/charge/fee for going overdrawn. We know it they know it.

Benefits are payable in order to help customers meet their expenses and as such it is legitimate for banks to deduct charges from the balance of an account held in that bank.

I doubt anyone can honestly say that Bank charges are a ligitemate living expense - which are mortgage, utilities, food, clothing, etc !!

Where is this plonker coming from ?

Is it not possible for you to open a non fee charging account - Basic Bank account?

That's why I'm setting the OFT on them, I have got my Hd back from mauijim (Thanks millions for coming to the rescue) and Now I can sort out the relevant letters and email them a PDF of the correspondence between me and Satan.

[jon1965]

Re: Santander ignoring me

Co op cashminder , although no cheque book is ok . No cheque book but does everything else. Just one issue on it, when you pay a large cheque in they reverse it out until its cleared so I got to Birmingham to find my account showing 5000 overdrawn when it had cleared money in. Was sorted out by next morning and I will know for next time

[Meerkat Mob]

Re: Santander ignoring me

I dont understand that statement..

The purpose of the Social Security Administration Act, 1992. Section 187 is to prevent people's benefit money being at risk by it being assigned over to a third party in settlement of a debt. It is not intended to prohibit the applicatoin of bank charges.

Bank charges when applied for going overdrawn ARE a debt and the bank is the third party.. surely !!

Bank charges are in the nature of an expense and are incurred by the holder of the Account.

Crap - Bank charges are a penalty/charge/fee for going overdrawn. We know it they know it.

Benefits are payable in order to help customers meet their expenses and as such it is legitimate for banks to deduct charges from the balance of an account held in that bank.

I doubt anyone can honestly say that Bank charges are a ligitemate living expense - which are mortgage, utilities, food, clothing, etc !!

Where is this plonker coming from ?

Is it not possible for you to open a non fee charging account - Basic Bank account?

[pooky2483]

Re: Santander ignoring me

If anyone's interested, I got an email from my Councils Housing Benefit Section.
I sent them a note in with the HB Claim form informing them of my Banks actions in relation to taking charges from our Benefits and they emailed me a link;
Lending Standards Board - Home Page
Here's a PDF too;

[pooky2483]

Re: Santander ignoring me

Would you not be better moving banks, ie getting any payments IN sent to a different account - then they cannot keep charging you. However as Trevor issued a final response, a good idea here would be to now go and report them to the FOS and see what they have to do.

Would you say (or be able to classify yourself) as being in financial hardship (ie so we can refer to BCOB; (rules 5.1.1.R & 5.1.4.G) - if so this may assist the FOS and any award they may levy to Santander.... Just a thought

I posted a link to this, above.

Best of luck

Oh, they clearly broke 5.1.4G as I informed Trevor that I would be in financial difficulty;

Hi Trevor,
I am very sorry to have to ask this, but I have made an error with my finances and I will be overdrawn by up to £500 and I will not be able to recover from this until possibly December, and that is without charges. With charges, the account will never recover.
My, and my wife's income consists only of Benefits and as I understand it, you can not take Bank charges from this money according to Social Security rules and regulations.

I don’t know what to do, I need your help.
I have enclosed a spreadsheet of my finances to help you see exactly what I mean and that it will take seemingly forever to recover.
Could you please get back to me as soon as possible.
Also, so that you can update my records, our telephone number is the same area code followed by ******.

Their reply 'No Help From Bank Edited.PDF'

My reply to that;
Hi Trevor,
I have just received your letter regarding your reply to my e-mail yesterday. From what I understand of it, you are offering NO help and are NOT willing to waive any charges. To which end means you are putting me in MORE financial hardship with my other financial outgoings such as rent and Utilities which means they could make us homeless and the utilities can be cut off. Also, the other outgoings will add further late payment and missed payment charges..

As I mentioned in my e-mail yesterday, you CANNOT take ANY Bank charges out of my account as they are payments from Social Services to which there are rules that these monies CANNOT be used to pay charges. From your reply, it seems that you are willing to let a customer fall into financial hardship and are not at all bothered to do anything about it.

I would ask that you at least show some compassion and offer help in this matter other that saying, 'You had a refund earlier this year and that’s all you’re getting, so tough luck'

I did however manage to 'tweak' my finances and managed to avoid this, also I have been telling them that the money going into our account is made up of SS/DWP Benefits and they replied with 'Abbey 2012 08 14 01 Edited'

I will be compiling a letter to FOS as soon as mauijim works his magic on my poorly HD, I can then get the letters I have sent them and the ones they have sent me.

[Never-In-Doubt]

Re: Santander ignoring me

Would you not be better moving banks, ie getting any payments IN sent to a different account - then they cannot keep charging you. However as Trevor issued a final response, a good idea here would be to now go and report them to the FOS and see what they have to do.

Would you say (or be able to classify yourself) as being in financial hardship (ie so we can refer to BCOB; (rules 5.1.1.R & 5.1.4.G) - if so this may assist the FOS and any award they may levy to Santander.... Just a thought

I posted a link to this, above.

Best of luck

[pooky2483]

Re: Santander ignoring me

Just checked our account and it looks like he's credited us;
£30.00 for the Creation Finance charge
£10.00 for the return of the SAR fee
£30.00 in way of a 'gift' (about the same as what the 'gift' of the hamper would have been)
Well, it's <something> at least.


....And yet, they’re taking £25.00 in charges tomorrow. Bloody ironic isn’t it.

[pooky2483]

Re: Santander ignoring me

I sent Trevor@Satan this e-mail last week;

Mr Webb,
I have been looking through the S.A.R. I received and would like to point out that I have NOT received the £10 Postal Order, as stated on the attached copy of the document mentioning it. As I have not received it, I would like you to post it back to me, if this can not be done, I would like the £10 credited to my account A.S.A.P. Another query regarding a statement in ther S.A.R., it mentions something about 'a gift', what is this 'gift' and when should I expect to receive it.

Also, in your last letter, you write;
'I note Mrs Pooky was added to the above account on 15 December 2011. Her sole Santander Current Account that was opened the following day and closed on 19 June 2012 was never used. I am therefore unable to understand how you incurred a £30 fee from Creation Finance for a failed Standing Order. Please let me have further Information if you would like to pursue this claim. Please note there are no active standing orders on your Santander Everyday Account.'

Yes, that is correct, we had my Sole Account changed to a Joint Account and was advised by Tom at our local branch, in ***** to open another Joint Account, what he didn’t tell us is that he could NOT open a Joint Account. He left us thinking we had 2 Joint Accounts, which is a matter that I have passed over to The F.O.S. The card details my wife gave to set up the Direct Debit were, we thought, to the Joint Account as we previously went onto the ********** Branch and asked which of the handful of cards we had were for the Joint account and were obviously given the wrong cards back in relation to my wife, Mrs Pooky.

Regarding the £30 charge from Creation finance, I previously sent you a copy of their letter in an email dated 3rd August 2012, stating the charge. I am also enclosing their letter stating other charges liable (including the one they have charged my wife with). There are no Standing Orders for Creation Consumer Finance simply because they are Direct Debits.


I had a phone call from Mr Webb Yesterday and he said he would give us the £30 charge that Creation Finance charged Mrs Pooky and refund the £10 PO that I never got back. We also had a chat about this 'Gift' they are supposed to be sending me and ruled out a 'hamper' and 'a bunch of flowers' which would be of no use at all.

So, what I'll probably do today is send him another e-mail and say that what would be a really nice gesture of an apology would be to credit our account with something in way as an apology which would be more appreciated and usefull.

[pooky2483]

Re: Santander ignoring me

but yeah definatly think of FOS as a soon step try and force a final response from them and if need be go to the CEO whoms email is ceo@santander.co.uk got from http://www.ceoemail.com/

It will get passed and dealt with properly then as your not happy with this rude and simply wrong response

I did email the CEO a while back (look back through here) regarding charges and that e-mail got returned UNREAD, so I sent another one and that got passed to a Mr. Webb who has been dealing with it.